Pierre Poilievre targets safe supply program in testy London news conference

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Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre brought his “wacko”-laced law and order show to London on Thursday, blaming Liberals, the NDP, doctors, researchers and indirectly journalists for rising crime rates and deaths.

Speaking at Lorne Avenue Park, Poilievre took aim again at London’s safer opioid supply program operating a few blocks away at London InterCommunity Health Centre.

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“We will combat the drug crisis that (Justin) Trudeau has unleashed. We will do away with taxpayer-funded hydromorphone, and other hard drugs of money-sucking activists, drug companies, bureaucrats and hackademics,” he said.

Poilievre stopped short using the word hacks to describe reporters.

But he accused those present of being irresponsible by calling doctors and researchers experts and by using the term safe supply to describe what police and health care officials alike also call safe supply.

“How can you possibly report on the story when you’re already using government propaganda? It is not safe,” Poilievre said. “You’ve already made up your mind.”

Eventually, after an exchange over terminology and asking reporters if they’d seen tent cities, or if they thought London agencies were doing a good job battling the drug crisis, Poilievre returned to answering questions. The group of reporters were allowed four in total – about half the number of questions Poilievre asked them.

When asked to point to evidence that safe supply hydromorphone pills are ending up in the hands of children, Poilievre replied, “Well, I don’t have to. You just have to ask the police, and even the so-called experts who have now been caught on tape saying that they’re (pills) are being diverted.”

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At a recent news conference, London police said some of London’s safe supply is being diverted to the streets but said nothing about the drugs ending up in the hands of children.

Poilievre’s use of “so-called experts” was a reference to Dr. Andrea Sereda, who founded and operates the safe supply program at London InterCommunity Health Centre.

The Conservatives have called her a liar and demanded her medical licence be revoked because Sereda has said both that there is no evidence of safe supply drugs going to children but that it’s possible teens could get some.

The federal Conservatives have used the opioid-related deaths of more than 40,000 Canadians since 2016 to support claims Liberal and NDP harm reduction measures aren’t working.

Harm reduction measures, which include supervised consumption sites, safe supply and opioid replacement therapy, aim to keep people alive and healthy until they seek treatment, if and when they want to.

Many front-line workers, activists, doctors and researchers say the 45,000 deaths in Canada are largely due to toxic supplies of deadly fentanyl, and they point to figures showing 80 per cent of the deaths are due to that drug.

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During his speech, Poilievre cited new Statistics Canada figures to show violent crime has also gone up during the Trudeau years

Since Trudeau became prime minister in 2015, violent crime is up by nearly 50 per cent, homicides are up 28 per cent and sexual assaults are up 74 per cent, “one of the worst crime waves in Canadian history,” Poilievre said.

The Conservative leader began the news conference by offering condolences to the family of Breanna Broadfoot, a 17-year-old London girl who died July 18 after she was stabbed two days earlier by her boyfriend. He’d been charged in March with assaulting her and was out on bail under a court order to stay away from her.

“She is just the latest victim of the radical, NDP wacko catch-and-release justice system. Or I should say injustice system that allows the same repeat violent offenders to go free again and again,” Poilievre said.

“We will stop the crime with jail not bail for repeat violent offenders who will no longer be eligible for bail, house arrest, probation or parole,” Poilievre said at the news conference, surrounded by Stop the Crime signs attached to playground equipment.

The news conference drew few spectators. One wore a Make Canada Great Again T-shirt. Another gave the one-finger Pierre Trudeau salute to Poilievre as he drove off.

Poilievre is scheduled to meet members of London’s Jewish community on Thursday evening at the Jewish Community Centre to discuss anti-Semitism.

rrichmond@postmedia.com

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